1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a desalination device producing fresh water by heating sea water in multi stages and multiple effects through forming a plurality of vapor generators that generate vapor, arranging evaporators continuously in a plurality of evaporator groups that desalinate sea water by vapor generated in the respective vapor generators as heat sources and constructing a condenser that condenses the vapor discharged from the multiple evaporators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, processes of obtaining fresh water from sea water are distinguished broadly by processes of systems using thermal energy, mechanical/electrical energy and recycled energy according to their energy sources. There are evaporation/distillation methods, reverse osmosis method, freezing method, electro-dialysis method, etc. for desalination methods. Among these methods, desalination methods using solar energy are distinguished into a method of system applying one evaporator for a single stage effect and a method of system adopting several evaporators for multi effects to enhance a yield of desalination. The systems for multi stage effect are distinguished into a system using MSF (Multi-Stage Flash Distillation) method and a system using MED (Multi-Effect Evaporation) method. Such methods use a high temperature stem or are applied in a large system that manufactures a massive amount of fresh water.
A single stage desalination device of the single effect system manufactures fresh water by providing high temperature water that uses solar heat as a heat source. The desalination device is composed of an evaporator that evaporates sea water integrated with a condenser that liquefies the evaporated vapor.
However, in the single stage desalination device, the high temperature water containing thermal energy evaporates sea water in the device only for one time when generating vapor and is discharged outside in a concentrated and heated liquid state. Therefore, the high temperature water is discharged without consuming all of its thermal energy.
On the other hand, a multi stage desalination device is designed to reuse a discharged heat to reduce waste of vapor and decrease energy for heating. A conventional multi stage desalination device supplies high temperature water to a first evaporator to evaporate sea water and generates vapor to use as a heat source for a second evaporator. Vapor generated in the second evaporator is used as a heat source for a third evaporator and such principle is used for a next following evaporator.
However, when a multi stage desalination device is made according to the size of device, an economic problem arises due to star ability and cost-effectiveness versus an amount of fresh water output. Therefore, a development of a multi stage and multi effect desalination device that can solve such problem is required.